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You raise some very important issues.
First off, you are right that U.S. immigration law allows the granting of an adoption visa only if an "orphan petition" is filed before his/her 16th birthday. The sole exception is that an orphan petition can be filed before a young person's 18th birthday IF the adopting family already has adopted his/her biological sibling.
Do be aware that some countries may set a lower maximum age for an adoptable child. As an example, China says that a child is no longer adoptable once he/she has had his/her 14th birthday.
Unfortunately, many unadoptable young people who currently live in orphanages are not being prepared for productive adulthood. Many orphanages lack the resources to provide vocational training, for example, so that the young people will be able to earn a living. This is especially true in the case of young people with disabilities.
Orphanages rarely have the means to help bright young people obtain a college education. In fact, in some countries, many children in orphanages get very little basic instruction, so that they wouldn't qualify for college in any case.
As a result, young people who have grown up in orphanages may have a bleak future, especially if constrained resources in the facilities mean that they are required to find other sources of housing and shelter, after a certain age. Some, who are highly intelligent, may wind up trying to find a job, with no more than a fifth or sixth grade education. Some become beggars, prostitutes, and criminals. The suicide rate is said to be high.
To their credit, some American adoption agencies are trying to address these issues, rather than just placing children for adoption. I don't want to appear to be favoring any particular agency, but I'll mention a few that have humanitarian aid programs related to older children:
1. WACAP raises funds to provide vocational training instructors for hearing-impaired young people in India.
2. Children's Home Society of Minnesota funds vocational training programs in Khabarovsk, Russia.
3. World Child works with the Living Stones Village program in Nanning, China, which provides elementary education for children through sixth grade, then helps them move into vocational or secondary education.
4. Villa Hope provides scholarships to a school for the deaf, as well as for hearing aids for deaf students, in Bolivia.
5. Adoptions Together, through its Children in Common program, funds woodworking and tailoring programs for older children in orphanages in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
6. Bethany Christian Services has developed a life skills training program for young people approaching age 18 in Kiev, Ukraine.
7. Carolina Adoption Service provides financial support to Moldovan orphans who have aged out of the orphanage system, so that they can have housing, food, and education or vocational training.
8. The CASI Foundation for Children trained the director of an orphan school in Liaoning, China, to offer an ability-based curriculum and vocational education programs, including a dental hygienist training program.
Whether or not you become able to pursue adoption, you may well want to contribute to such programs. You can learn more about them by contacting adoption agencies individually. You may also be able to get information on a number of agencies' humanitarian aid efforts for older children in orphanages by contacting the Joint Council on International Children's Services, a membership organization of licensed, nonprofit adoption agencies.
Sharon
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